The FCC began the month of May by approving Samsung’s indoor router and, thus, the first end-to-end commercial beamforming stations for 5G. The occasion also marks the first federal government-approved 5G millimeter wave product.
Samsung’s system consists of three parts: an access point, an outdoor router that sits on a utility pole and the aforementioned indoor router. The FCC approved the first two components in February.
The regulatory breakthrough was the result of months of close cooperation between the FCC and Samsung.
“They reached the point where they were comfortable,” Alok Shah, Samsung’s VP of networks strategy, business development and marketing, told RCR wireless. “It was [a] learning process for all of us to determine what data would be required and how the measurements align with existing FCC regulations.”
Verizon will be the first to deploy Samsung’s system, with an eye toward Sacramento. It previously successfully tested the less efficient, pre-commercial forerunner to the current system.
These developments signify a transition of sorts for Samsung. “From 2012 to 2016 we were doing R&D and demos, 2017 was focused on trials, and 2018 is really about commercial and use case development,” concluded Shah.
